After only a few months in employment, the Claimant felt forced to resign and bring claims of harassment and discrimination against her former employer, Highways England, her direct line manager and another manager.
Evidence showed that from immediately after her first interview, her line manager was attracted to her. On that night he took her mobile number from her application form and sent her a text message, out of normal working hours, from his personal mobile. The tribunal found this to be suspicious as he did not contact any other candidates.
Some 2,500 texts messages were exchanged, demonstrating his attraction to her. The tribunal accepted that the Claimant had initially felt compelled to engage for fear of losing her job. When the Claimant reiterated she wanted to bring matters back on tracks as friends, her line manager commented “shush and kiss me”.
These events happened before the Claimant started work. On her fist day, she discovered that he had deliberately moved her to a depot where his friend was supervisor, so that he could “extol [the line manager’s] virtues as a potential romance interest”. The supervisor did this and made reference to her still being on probation, taken as a threat to the future of her employment. The unwarranted conduct from both men continued to the point the Claimant complained to HR, she went off sick and subsequently felt left with no alternative but to resign.
A Nottingham employment tribunal ruled that Kim Beaney, a driver and trainee highway inspector, had been constructively unfairly dismissed following harassing behaviour by her manager and her supervisor.
The tribunal heard that Beaney’s line manager, Grant Bosence, was attracted to her, so deliberately placed her at a depot where his friend, Steven Curtis, was supervisor, so Curtis could “extol [Bosence’s] virtues as a potential romantic interest”. In doing so, Bosence reassigned Beaney from the depot she was originally allocated.
It found that Beaney was the victim of harassment and discrimination by her colleagues, which led to her resignation a few months into her employment.